January pARTy Paintings - Mares and Foals

Well, here are the paintings from the latest pARTy! We had good participation, and some great work. I always like to see what different artists come up with.

Though are pursuits as artists are often solitary, a recent comment by friend and fine art photographer Juliet Harrison was a good reminder that we don't, however, create in a vacuum. We can't help but be influenced by each other, and that's not a bad thing, as long as we continue to develop and maintain our own style and individuality. These pARTies are a good example of that - even though some of us went with a very similar crop of the reference photo, our styles remain unique.

In the same vein, these pARTies began as a fun challenge of sorts, between myself and Kim Santini, last year. When other artists began to show interest and we opened it up, what developed was not a novel concept. My first exposure to this sort of exercise was on Wet Canvas, with the weekly Weekend Drawing Events. As a result of that, our own Equine Art Guild has done similar projects. And a great blog with a weekly drawing/painting challenge is Karen Jurik's Different Strokes From Different Folks.

Okay - enough yaking! Here are the paintings.

First, from your pARTy hosts:

Kim Santini, 4 x 16 acrylic on Raymar panel (above, top of post)

Linda Shantz, 6 x 8 oil on Raymar panel

Now, our participants, below. If I have any latecomers, I will edit the post and add them later! Thanks to all who played.

Delia Pacheo, "The Foal" 4 x 6 acrylic

Judy Johnson, 8 x 8 watercolour

Lisa Ward-Guarino, pastel

Linda Snider-Ward, prismacolor on Stonehenge

Linda Massey, "Playground Encounter" 11 x 14 oil on board

Kathy Roeth, 5 x 7 watercolour and gouache on 140lb watercolour paper



Linda L. Martin, "Afternoon Pasture," 9 x 12 watercolour

pARTy Image, January 19-23

Well, here it is. I chose this one because it gives the artist a few options. You're free to crop how you like, include/exclude what you want. If you're posting your finished painting to your blog, please be sure to credit the photographer - in this case it's Linda Shantz (me!). A reciprocal link is always a nice gesture.

While you are free to sell your painting, we ask that you don't enter it into any juried shows or exhibitions. The main reason for this is that many of you are working from the same image, and it will save you some embarrassment - it's quite possible that two or more artists may submit from the same reference, which is just not a good thing, as it will possibly discredit you with the jury.

If you would like a higher res image of this, please email me at thevirtualparty77@yahoo.ca and I will send it to you. Likewise, when you're finished your painting, please email me a jpeg at the same address, along with your name, size of your paining, and medium. Feel free to include the link to your own website or blog, and I will try to post it all in a follow-up blog post, here.

The rest of the instructions can be found above, near the header. Any questions, please ask!

Have fun, and happy painting! Looking forward to seeing everyone's work!

New Year's pARTy!

Okay, so we're a little late. This week we'll be hosting the first pARTy of the New Year. I bet you all thought we'd dropped off the face of the earth!

The pARTy will run from Tuesday, January 19th, through to Saturday, January 23. Remember the idea is to complete your painting within a 24-hour period. I will try to get the photo posted tonight, so that our overseas participants can get going if they choose. At that point I'll review the 'rules' and things will be set in motion!

Hope lots of you are able to play!